One of a kind

This year’s Corporate Governance Award for the most innovative CSR disclosure policy went to Timberland for its unique approach to social and environmental performance. Timberland’s policy includes an innovative ‘reporting suite’ that provides the company with the opportunity to link its CSR performance management functions to its financial review calendar, a mechanism that allows it to review its CSR performance in the same manner as its financial balance sheet.

‘We aim to ensure our reporting suite is available in an interactive rather than a static medium, to both inform and engage our intended audience,’ explains Beth Holzman, CSR strategy and reporting manager at the footwear, outdoors and sporting clothing company. In terms of CSR stakeholders, Timberland has striven to further strengthen its policy by having its chief executive host quarterly stakeholder calls. Adding to its plethora of impressive CSR policies, the company has also begun disclosing its CSR performance  online in a Web 2.0 platform designed to enhance communication with stakeholders while actively fostering the growth of open dialogue.

‘Our goal is to broaden the conversation,’ says Holzman. ‘We try to be innovative and look for ways in which we can have an impact.’ While adhering to robust Global Reporting Initiative standards, the company also evaluates its corporate responsibility performance against integral environmental, social and governance strategies. ‘We communicate with transparency and accountability: what you measure is what gets managed, and we are accountable for the social and physical environment,
climate change and the materials that go into our products,’ says Holzman.

In addition to regular quarterly reporting, Timberland compiles a more comprehensive and  interpretive report on a bi-annual basis. By doing so the company is able to provide an in-depth assessment of developments and targets over an extended time frame,
overlapping this with short-term reporting results in an almost constant flow of information that both internal and outside stakeholders can use to evaluate the success of the program. ‘It allows our reporting team a greater opportunity to focus on other work of reporting that’s necessary to staying best in class,’ explains Holzman.

The underpinning of Timberland’s CSR program is its ‘four pillars’ of energy, product, workplaces and  service. These pillars form a fundamental part of the company’s operations, and managers take them into consideration when making business decisions.
No company can do everything right and, like all firms, Timberland occasionally misses targets or under-performs. It is when this occurs that the company really excels, according to the judges, who were very impressed with the openness and honesty Timberland displayed when discussing these misses. What’s more, the judges noted that the company ‘highlights the areas of under- performance and lays out a plan and time frame to correct the issue. This is rare and refreshing.’